This is a blog about our new life living down here in Cornwall. We walked the South West coast path over two months in summer 2011 and had moved down to live in Cornwall eight weeks later. I think it was us who were the most surprised

Monday, 2 June 2014

There seems to be a real mixed bag of weather around at the moment although it is basically warm and dry. It would be a braver man than me to not be prepared though. I am still carrying all my waterproofs, plus my fleece, plus anything else that would protect me on delivery. I am slowly going as brown as a berry at work, but it is not all down to the sun. Its amazing just how brown you can become because of the wind blowing against you. I look very fit and tanned...although looks can be deceiving.
We had a day out at St Mawes the other Sunday. I took Linda for a visit around the castle. It is hard to find a more magical castle in Cornwall and it could easily be lived in. Defensible it is not, but dependable it is. It stands proudly opposite Pendennis Castle and is a real favourite of mine. A veteran of several wars including both world wars, it is a fascinating place for a look around. Its main claim to fame is that it was built to protect England from the Spanish...and they never took it. Unlike the much larger and much stronger Pendennis opposite, which was taken a couple of times.
One up to St Mawes over Falmouth I think.

We spent the rest of the day just lying and sitting quietly on Carne Beach. It was very hot and sunny and both of us got a little burnt by the sun. It would have been worse without the old factor 15 on both of us. I found last year that my skin dried out very quickly last year due to the sunshine and the wind. This year I have taken Linda's advice and not only do I drink more water, I also moisturise in the morning. Don't mock it...it works. I've never felt or looked so well as I do at the moment.
Work has been quite busy with all the election material, but that election has now been and gone. UKIP seemed to take the lions share of the vote around the country and have had very good support in the South West; the Green party did well too.
The other party who did well were all the postman who managed to 'trouser' a good few pounds from delivering this old election stuff. They can call an election every couple of months if they like.
Linda is still typically working very hard. She is working long hours at her job and her idea of relaxation is to do lots of work at home and up at the allotment. I do understand the premise that she enjoys these other things and gets great pleasure from them. I also understand how she doesn't think of it as work when she is busy doing loads of personal tasks for herself. But I do feel that, for a good work/life balance, there has to be time when you just sit down and rest your body. I fear something will give if she doesn't find this balance...and she doesn't find it quickly.
Having said that; I was very pleased for her when she became the secretary of her Samba Band. She is now enjoying herself by organising things and I know she enjoys that.
We are looking after Magic at the moment. He is the cat that lives with Gary and Jeanette next door. They are in France for a couple of weeks and I have become as much his servant now as Linda is the servant of two guinea pigs and countless wild birds.
I go across the garden to their house twice a day and feed his lordship a fresh sachet of cat food. If he condescends to be generous, he permits me to stroke him and scratch him behind the ears. We get on though and he is a lovely cat. We both work hard in the great war against the rat. He has caught some and got rid of them that way. However I am not sharing the credit of one of them. I shot and killed it. Magic coming into our garden; picking its body up and carrying it around to his back door; and then looking smug as if he caught the thing himself;...not on!!!
We had a nice bank holiday weekend last week, but as usual, Linda had to work it. It does upset her as it eats into our time together.
The same has happened this weekend with it being my long weekend off. Linda had Saturday and Sunday off, but had to go to work on Monday. Unusually, I had overtime Saturday and so I worked that day, but I had Sunday and Monday off. Typical isn't it. As you can guess...we made the most of Sunday.
We drove over to the Lizard and had a good walk around the place. We parked up in the village and, after a coffee, walked down the path to the coast path. We came out halfway between Kynance Cove and Lizard Point.
We turned left there and walked around the coastpath until we came to Cadgwith. It was good to see that the Chough's have fledged and flown away from the old Lifeboat station at the point.
We also saw the island known as Mulvin.

God knows how it got our name.
Linda and I were stood up on the clifftops and she is pointing at the Island of Mulvin. It is the larger of the three. Rumour has it that somebody sold it to an ancestor of mine when the tide was out; like now...because when the tide comes in its about the size of a dustbin. We may have been diddled here ha ha.

We then had a drink at Cadgwith before setting off across country towards Kynance. We had the drink at Cadgwith to remember an old friend of ours, Bernie Cooper. He was a work colleague and friend of both Linda and I. Like Lin, he to was bitten by the old Black Dog on more than one occassion. Depression is a cruel trick and he suffered with it, and usually alone.

He had a good sense of humour on him as this picture will testify. Nobody knows more than me the stressful nature of working in that cage he's standing in. He should never have been put in there. This photo used to be put up on the door when he was struggling with his work. He was a good lad though and we were all sorry when he got bitten by a bigger and different dog from which it is very hard to survive. Sadly our old friend passed away the other day, and Wheelie organised a 'raise a glass for Bernie' through photos on facebook.

This was ours to an old pal. We both wish there could have been a third glass on the table Bernie with you there to share it. We chose Cadgwith and the Lizard as it is a favourite spot of ours and somewhere we will go back to again and again. We miss you but won't forget you.

On the way we stopped off at a lovely old church at a place called 'Grade'. A lovely old 13th C church but beginning to show its years. If I ever win the lottery, I swear I shall help that place benefit from a bit of cash. It is lovely.
After leaving there, we walked across the common and got to Kynance just in time for a cup of tea before the cafe closed.
Fortified we made our way back along the coast to Lizard village and finished the day off with a bag of chips each. It really was a perfect day.
I am waiting now for two old friends of mine to appear. They are on holiday in England from Australia. We have not seen each other for nearly fifty years; certainly 48 years anyway.

They are a brother and sister, Malcolm and Maureen Shackleton, who used to live along the road from us. Their mum and dad were lovely people and I loved going around there. Ted and Elsie have died; Elsie very recently; and so only my mum is left of that generation from Tilford Road. It'll be good to see them.